Kerry: Climate change delay is 'suicide pact'

Kerry: Climate change delay is 'suicide pact'

39 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A leading US senator warned on Wednesday that deferring potentially costly actions to combat climate change because of the global economic slump amounted to "a mutual suicide pact."

"Climate change is not governed by a recession, it's governed by scientific facts about what's happening to Earth. And you either accept the realities of the science or you don't," said Democratic Senator John Kerry.

He spoke after some of his colleagues argued that the United States should not impose a cap-and-trade system for so-called greenhouse gases blamed for global warming because it amounts to a painful tax during a deep downturn.

"You don't enter a mutual suicide pact because the economy is having a hard time right now," Kerry said after meeting with UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon seven months before global climate change talks in Denmark's capital.

"You certainly have room to negotiate at what the rate and schedule is within that, but it doesn't mean you can sit around and do nothing," said Kerry.

But the Massachusetts lawmaker and onetime presidential hopeful seemed to douse hopes that the United States would arrive in Copenhagen with the US Congress having already passed sweeping legislation to curb emissions.

He said the House of Representatives would likely pass its measure in June and that key Senate committees could act "before the summer" on legislation but warned that the whole Senate would have "a hard time getting that done."

Kerry said there would be enough progress to give Copenhagen negotiators "a very clear vision" of US plans and said foreign leaders he had spoken to had indicated "that will satisfy" the world of US action on the issue.

Key lawmakers had said earlier this year that they hoped to have sweeping legislation to fight climate unveiled by May and certainly done by the December talks amid hopes of forging a global agreement.